I moved here to Cummins from Adelaide in February of 2014 after wanting to move here since I was 17 years old. I’ve always found Cummins to be a very connected space, much more than where I lived in the Adelaide Hills, or even Port Lincoln where I grew up. I felt Cummins had a brilliant sense of community and that’s what attracted me here.

Prior to living here, I was born and raised in Port Lincoln and am the eldest of 3 siblings. I have 2 younger brothers, Kris and Ryan. When I was 2.5 years old, my youngest sibling, Ryan contracted encephalitis (fluid on the brain) when he was only 18 months, and this led to him having permanent brain damage and learning difficulties. Our dad was a lobster fisherman, and he wasn’t home for much of the year, back then the cray season tended to go nearly 10 months of the year, so I had to help mum a lot. This is in turn meant I felt an immense amount of pressure to be constantly responsible and grow up quickly.

I enjoyed school and attended Port Lincoln High School. I cruised through well enough and when I was 15, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity by my parents to participate in the AFS Exchange program. I packed up life as I knew it, and headed to Burlington, Wisconsin, USA for 12 months.

I got over there in the middle of 1998 and in the November of that year, there was an attempted school shooting at the school I was attending. Five male students with grudges against some of the staff and students had plotted to carry out the atrocious act that we’re all too familiar with in American schools today. Luckily one the girlfriends of one of the supposed gunmen alerted authorities and they were stopped before getting to the school, but my host brother and I were woken at 6am by my host mom and told that there would be no going to school on this day. This shook me up a bit as I had recently had a heated debate with one of the related students and after they were caught, we were notified that the 3 of them had a list of 3-4 people they wanted to kill. I had hoped that my name was not on that list.

Thankfully they didn’t reach the school and the situation did not eventuate. When Mum found out she wanted me to come home straight away, but I was adamant that I wanted to stay and live my year out in Burlington. In 1999 tragedy did strike and it was completely terrifying. In April, Columbine in Colorado had a school shooting. This was one of the first mass shootings to make international news and one of my good friend’s cousins was killed. I remember it so vividly, like it was yesterday. I came home from school that afternoon, chucked my bag on the ground as most teenagers did, grabbed something to eat and turned on the TV. I was transfixed, watching it all unfold on the news and it was so traumatic. I saw a SWAT team trying to pull a semi-conscious bloody body out of a window. The casualty was Partick Ireland. The SWAT team also helped other causalities and distraught families throughout the school site. Just being exposed to this gave me some kind of PTSD, I am sure of it. I was nearly 16 and watching this all unfold on tv, and knowing this could have happened to us in our school 5 months earlier was so upsetting. I think because of all of this I’m scared of crowds in small spaces, especially where I don't know anyone, I always like to know where my exits are.

I am so grateful for my overall exchange experience though. I met so many people from all over the world during my stay in America and I am still connected with many of them now. After I got back to Australia, I had a few jobs after school. I worked at Blockbuster, Woolworths and the local Chiropractor. When I was 19, I went back to America to work as an au pair. I had been there only 6 months when mum rang to let me know of her leukaemia diagnosis. It cut my 12-month working experience short and I came home straight away. She’s been living with chronic myeloid leukaemia for over 20 years now and is, thankfully, still living her best life. In my late 20’s, I moved from Lincoln to Adelaide, where I pursued my career as a youth worker with Aboriginal Family Support Services. This was both a fulfilling and challenging career, but when a job opportunity opened in Cummins, I decided to move back to the Eyre Peninsula and to a more rural lifestyle.

For as long as I can remember I have always been creative, and both my grandmas were very creative. I became interested in photography when I was in Adelaide and now, I mix photography with my art and my many travels. I really like portrait photography; because I am passionate about expressing and sharing people’s emotions and telling stories. I also love to travel, and this is also inspired by my family history research and strong desire to find out about my ancestors, and have been extremely lucky to have travelled to places where my ancestors are from. On my mum’s side of the family, my great grandpa emigrated from a Swedish island named Åland (now autonomous, but a part of the Finish kingdom) and he eventually settled in Port Lincoln. I have been fortunate enough to visit this island and my cousins who live there. I have recently returned from travel around Europe and UK for 2 months which I explored on my own. For some people travelling by yourself may seem daunting but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I drove nearly 6000 miles in 5 weeks throughout the UK and saw a lot of fantastic places, challenging my mental, emotional and physical health as I explored from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands and Outer Hebrides. I am currently planning my next trip, a walking holiday across Hadrian’s Wall.

Putting my physical and mental health first has become a huge priority for me over the past 12 months. There’s no time like the present to change the way you do things. I have recently been training for my waking holiday and have walked from Port Kenny to Venus Bay, Cummins to Edillilie, and Cummins to Yallunda Flat over several weekends. I also enjoy the Village Arts, here at Our Town in Cummins, once a month and I am part of the Port Lincoln Art Group in Lincoln which I attend weekly. I’m lucky to currently have a piece hanging in the Port Lincoln Art Groups exhibition at the Nautilus Art Gallery. I am also the current secretary of the Yallunda Flat A & H Society. It’s a great committee to be part of. I am in awe of the community's commitment. They put in so much effort into making a great show every year and looking after the grounds.

Growing up in Port Lincoln, and later, Adelaide; at times I can find some of society’s attitudes challenging in a small town. People can be so scared of change, and ideas that don’t fit into traditional ideals, or beliefs. And while I am not afraid to push back to let people know that some things they say or do are inappropriate, I like to encourage people to find balance with new ideas and be open to things that make this community beautiful and us all different as individuals. It is important to me to acknowledge my privilege and to ally with minorities who sometimes face some of the outdated views held by society.